For the sake of those who have not had the advantage
of knowing people who are extremely well-informed about the daily doings of SB, I have
written a series of papers on my very close interchanges with my very excellent deceased
friend, V. K. Narasimhan (renowned journalist and editor - latterly of Sanathana
Sarathi, where he published dozens of my articles). Narasimhan was very important to
the respectability of SB in leading Indian circles, but he harboured many and persistent
doubts.

These articles tells about the legacy of facts and
inside knowledge that I was left with by V. K. Narasimhan, a burden of unspoken truth that
will be very unpalatable and extremely disturbing to many, as they were to me at the time.
Let me state at the outset that I swear on all the scriptures and/or my personal honour
that all I relate here is nothing but the truth to the very best of my understanding and
recollection (which is based on copious notes made at the time).

Narasimhan often repeated that he really didn't
understand why SB was so nice to him... describing himself as a rather non-religious and
even cynical person. However, it is quite evident that SB found VKN a very valuable asset
to his social credibility. VKN's huge journalistic prestige, his known social ideals and
not least his well-known decency and honesty gave a kind of guarantee of SB's genuineness
and bolstered his image in the eyes of the more enlightened middle classes of India. Yet
why did VKN, who was known for honest journalism and was not a little proud of this, go
along with an entirely non-negative presentation of absolutely everything to do with SB
and all his works, both in the monthly SB journal and in his own public talks, when he so
well knew about failings and worse that occurred around him? One reason is that VKN always
felt great respect for SB, and - like most others - was strongly affected by his
invigorating (and intimidating) presence. Moreover, a journalist who had seen so much
failure, incompetence and corruption in his journalistic travels, VKN had admiration for
SB's public works and personal engagement, as well as his stated determination to raise
India and protect or regenerate all that was good about its culture and people.

Certainly, after VKN's wife died, SB called him for
something or other practically every day and he spent many long hours close by SB at
festivals, in occasional interviews, and rode about with him in cars etc. It is
significant that a person so often with SB - frequently on a daily basis - held the
opinions he did, and voiced them. Meanwhile, I am taking sole responsibility for making
this information common knowledge, both about the amazing abilities and activities of SB
told me by VKN and about the doubtful and darker sides of what has gone on very close to
him. Especially after VKN's wife died, he became virtually dependent on living in the
ashram for he had grown into the way of life there after 20 years in frequent association
with SB. Since he gave up his house and resided in the ashram, VKN had virtually - if
gradually - fallen more and more under the charm, but also the power, of SB. While all
devotees do this to a considerable extent, those coming from abroad can more easily break
out if the need should arise, as is seen in the fall away of prominent foreign devotees
after the 1999 revelations, and by the fact that very few prominent Indian followers
revoke SB, and certainly not in public.

It is not without some misgivings that I report
these matters; I am impelled by my duty that certain facts should be recorded accurately
and truthfully - I am possibly indebted to Sathya SB for some form of physical healing,
and spiritual sustenance at times, plus many paranormal experiences. Unlike the majority
of Sai followers, however, my gratitude does not extend to gagging myself about important
negative facts at SB's ashrams, and I have come to know of plenty such, not least from
V.K. Narasimhan, including the gravest kinds of criminal behaviour.

The most important piece of information I ever
received from Narasimhan, was also the most shattering. It had sometimes caused me some
problems and doubts that VKN confided to me experiences and facts known to insiders of the
ashram but which he was unable, not least for reasons of his own and others' security, to
speak openly about there. Still, I was determined to rationalise everything nicely to make
it all fit the Procrustean bed of SB's claims about himself, his work and 'mission'.

Had Narasimhan - in whose integrity I had full faith
- not been willing to give me a frank account of what happened, I would still have believe
that Sai Baba, his brother, the ashram and the Central Trust were entirely innocent.
But they were not! I guarantee on my honour that what follows is an accurate a report as
my notes at the time. When I asked Narasimhan in January 1996 in private what had
occurred, he said of SB's top officials, "they did a terrible thing", using
those very words. Those involved were some top ashram officials and Central Trust members,
and particularly SB's younger brother, Janakiramiah. The police, once they finally arrived
on the scene, were blackmailed by these people into shooting the four intruders and
claiming it was in self-defence.

Narasimhan attested the above to me as an indubitable fact, though he was not personally
present to the killings, being asleep in his apartment. He further recounted to me a
conversation at which he had been present when Baba's younger brother, Jankiramaiah (a
multi-millionaire property owner and entrepreneur who now also virtually heads the Sathya
Sai Central Trust) discussed the incident with "a very high official in the Indian
Government", who it later became clear was the Home Minister, S.B. Chavan. (Note:
Janakiramiah openly claimed to the press repeatedly and insistently that the intruders had
intended to assassinate his elder brother, SB!) Chavan had congratulated Janakiramiah on
having had the four intruders shot by the police and one of them commented "Dead men
tell no tales", whereupon they actually laughed together. Narasimhan was deeply
shocked. When one considers his position at that time, it is easy to see how powerless he
was to stand up and announce what he knew. His life would almost certainly have been in
danger.

VK Narasimhan, whose word I just cannot doubt on
this, also told me how the ashram/Central Trust authorities had a lever with which to
blackmail the police to execute by shooting the four youths who had knifed to death Baba's
two attendants... and they used it! Learning all this to be indisputable fact shook my
view of everything around SB worse than anything before or even since. It has also
obviously had repercussions on my faith in Baba's alleged universal benevolence, even
though he may well have given no instructions himself but just let things happen. Armed
only with knives, the youths could have been disarmed one by one before they were allowed
to exit the room or, at least only shot to disable them if they threatened the police.

I recount the blackmailing episode in full, and many
other details of the 1993 murders in the third paper on VKN entitled 'Shocking Revelations
from V. K. Narasimhan' at